‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ Review: Sarah Snook Dazzles in a Flashy Stage-Meets-Screen Retelling
variety.comDavid Benedict Oscar Wilde himself sat in the Royal Box in the West End’s beautifully gilded Theatre Royal Haymarket in the 1890s for the premieres of his comedies “A Woman of No Importance” and “An Ideal Husband.” Given the glitteringly dangerous ideas that drive his only novel, “The Picture of Dorian Grey,” it seems more than likely he would have applauded the sheer audacity of writer-director Kip Williams’ new, dizzyingly high-tech adaptation, in which all 26 characters in the mostly-male Faustian pact are played with delicious range and wholly arresting zeal by “Succession” Emmy winner Sarah Snook.
The only character traits that the versatile Snook chooses to carry forward from her “Succession” character Shiv Roy is the gleaming sense of entitled ambition.
That’s the hallmark of the beautiful title character, whom initially we do not meet. Williams’ staging of his own adaptation opens with a fierce close-up of Snook’s exuberant face on a large, portrait-style screen — the first of many — hanging down at the center of the proscenium arch.
Simultaneously, towards the back of the bare, black, open stage, we watch her being filmed. She’s setting the scene, narrating a discussion between Basil, the painter of Dorian’s portrait, and Dorian’s friend and mentor Sir Henry Wotton.
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